I am not afriad of tomorrow, for I have seen yesterday and I love today~William Allen White

The airports I travel often are Hong Kong, and Singapore and semi-Vancouver. Canadians are known to be quite friendly and easy-going, but they have some of the grumpiest immigration officers! This also leads to me to mention that Air Canada’s flight attendants provide are often very rude, condescending, and don’t understand what services mean, I have vowed to never fly with them. However, that is another story altogether. It bugs me to be asked “why are you here” when I showed you a Canadian passport, “why do you think I am here”? It’s like automatic impulse to assume you’ve no right to be here or that they get a prize for asking dumb and irrelevant questions. They look so grouchy too, it’s like they haven’t have their cup of coffee yet, or drink three before you sit down!

Hong Kong immigration officers are alright, nothing to praise or complain about. Not overly stony faces, check your passport and wave you along, not too picky. Once I entered the restricted area, the next part is to have carry-on luggage checked and I find the officers at this part of the process usually very friendly. I remember bringing a bottle of face cream in my bag and the officer told me I need to throw it away because the bottle says 120ml, which exceeds 100ml. I explained to him the bottle of cream has already been used and it obviously contains way less than 100ml. I told him I don’t have ay more face cream and I need to bring it with me to Canada because the weather difference will make me all dry and itchy. He was very nice about it and made an effort to find me a suitable bottle to pass the cream into. Honestly, it’s impossible to pass face cream from one bottle to another because it’s not liquid. There is also a female officer around, and she too was very nice. She used a clear plastic bag to make it into one of those frosting bag and literally help me scoop cream into the bag to transfer into the bottle. So I need to praise these officers on their friendliness and understanding, two thumbs up!

Nothing to complain about for Singapore immigration officers either. All officers tend to not smile, but they don’t look displeased and grouchy. When you are just about to enter into the restricted area, there is an immigration officer that would look at your passport before letting you in. I noticed that this post is usually manned by younger officers and they are definitely more friendly and easy going. While waiting for the officer to wave me in, I was just glancing off into the distance thinking and then the officer gave me back my passport. I was about to walk off when he mumbled something. Because I wasn’t paying attention, I leaned in and said “what is that you said” and he started waving saying “bye bye”. So cute! Nothing to make the day more pleasant than to be sent off in such a casual way.

Related

Comments on: "immigration officers~SMILE^^" (2)

My absolute favourite are those in Japan! They are always very friendly and polite. They are doubly more so when you speak to them in Japanese 🙂

HK ones are nice too, especially the younger ones, and especially when you speak to them in Cantonese. So are those in Singapore. I used to travel quite frequently to Singapore, and having seen a page after page of Singapore immigration stamps, they’d always say “Have a pleasant stay, ma’am” or “Have a fruitful meeting, ma’am”, and true enough I’d always had 🙂

The moment one step into a foreign land, a smile always makes things better 🙂